Meet Yue Deng

Today we’d like to introduce you to Yue Deng.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started? 
I’m a recent graduate of USC’s Media Arts, Game, and Health program, with an undergraduate degree in Animation from the School of Visual Arts in New York. I was inspired to pursue a career in art by my love of game art and, more specifically, by the stylized and hand-drawn art styles of childhood games such as World of Warcraft. But there is another twist to my professional path: I didn’t start as an art major. I had passed the Chinese college entrance exams and enrolled in a university majoring in Biological Sciences, but after one semester, I realized that this was not what I wanted to do, so I took a break from my studies and reapplied to universities that year. I chose to major in animation to express the stories I had in mind, and my undergraduate degree taught me a lot of professional skills and aesthetics. After that, I chose to major in games because I wanted to try to get closer to the game industry from the perspective of game design and planning and to convey my own ideas. After two years of study, I’ve re-examined my own path, and I think that my original intention and what I’ve always wanted is still game art, or more broadly speaking, art for all imaginable stories – the medium can be any vehicle such as games, animation, or movies, but it exists to convey an interesting and moving story. 

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Looking back at the road I’ve traveled, my biggest challenge is probably that I’ve spent more time exploring the possibilities and really identifying what I like and want to do all the time, and have often felt lost in that process because of uncertainty about the purpose can lead to too many choices, which can lead to stagnation in the choices or exhaustion in doing more than one thing at the same time and only getting the skinny on it. Because concept design and art have always been a difficult profession to enter due to competition, I was afraid of the difficulty and tried to find an easier path. However, at a time when the industry is becoming more and more difficult, I have decided that I want to stay true to my beliefs, and I believe that only love can make a path not necessarily the fastest but the furthest. 

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Because of the experiences I mentioned above, I can do a variety of things, including game design, animation, 3D modeling, and lighting. My current specialties are game art, prop design, and concept design. I’ve worked on many projects in school, from prop design to architectural design and character design. I think one of the things I’m happy about is that the people I’ve helped and know recognize my art style and work and that I’ve gained professional experience and recognition from it. I think especially in game art, my past experience can help me to better design my characters, for example, my animation and 3d experience can give me a dynamic concept and three-dimensional thinking, so that I can imagine how the character moves in a three-dimensional space, or I can design the movement. In addition, I think that all of these abilities will play an important role in helping me if I intend to make indie games in the future. 

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
I was in my junior year of college when the outbreak started, and a story I sometimes bring up is when I was getting ready to go home for the summer, I said goodbye to my roommate, closed the door to my dorm room, and wondered if there was any chance that I might never be able to come back here again. It was like a dramatic moment for me, and my thought at the time was that it shouldn’t be that bad. But then everyone knew the results, and maybe no one could have imagined that the epidemic could last so long and cause such far-reaching damage in the first place. So, I finished my college at home on Zoom, had my graduation on Zoom, and never had the chance to return to New York. It still makes me feel very sad when I think about it. I cherish the days I spent studying, and I think that’s the kind of offline experience that you can’t get online. So, if there’s anything I’ve learned from the epidemic, it’s probably that experience and mindset of dealing with a major crisis and appreciating the moment more. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.yuedengart.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/syramichelle_17/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yue-deng-31a4aa268/